New Orleans, Louisiana. Another mid-century modern building may be demolished in the Crescent City. Edward Durell Stone’s World Trade Center, built as the International Trade Mart, has been under threat since the mid-1990s. Begun in 1959 and partially occupied by 1966, the ITM set the standard for other such structures worldwide. Designed to promote foreign commerce through the Port of New Orleans, the ITM was home to the trade organization, the Dock Board, stevedores, international consulates, shipping companies, a women’s clinic, modistes and an art gallery.

East-West Dialogues: Modern Architectures in Florida is a two-part symposium designed as forum to investigate the multiple forms and meanings of mid-century architecture across the State of Florida. The symposium was organized to solicit critical reflections on modern Florida through the lens of the architects who defined it, and to further survey the discourse among them. These architects, and the diversity of their work, have received varying attention as individuals, but little recognition as a group. This symposium is particularly inspired by the architectural legacy of Mark Hampton, a critically acclaimed Florida architect with work spanning the state from Tampa to Miami.

Edward Durell Stone was my father. Father and I had a tenuous and at times a difficult relationship. He would have found it both comically improbable and deeply touching if he had been aware that I had written his biography. Even though our relationship was distant, I had a closely-held but deeply-seated admiration for his achievements. The underlying impetus to write his biography extends back to my childhood in New York during the 1960s. Anyone who came of age during those years recalls them as a time when activists would champion the rights of people unjustly relegated to living life at the margins of society. It was this sensitivity to injustice and an activist’s desire to right wrongs that set me on the course that led me to submit a proposal to Rizzoli for my father’s biography in the spring of 2008. Simply stated, Father has been unfairly treated for over a half-century, and the time for him to be accorded the simple decency, recognition and respect that he deserves from the architectural community is long overdue.

As contemporary architects continue to deal with the delicacies of creatively intervening in existing buildings, designing alongside iconic modern buildings has specifically proven to be a challenge (as seen in the struggle of adapting Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal or in the controversial addition to Corbusier’s “Ronchamp” chapel by Renzo Piano). The most recent announcement in October of The Bacardi headquarters in Miami, Florida, now under its new owners (the National YoungArts Foundation), has hired Frank Gehry to convert the corporate complex into an art campus.

Endangered historic site lists, as a tool for advocacy, are being announced and promoted by many preservation organizations and architectural advocacy groups across the country. As these lists seem to proliferate, it’s interesting to step back and look at their genesis, the inclusion (or perhaps exclusion) of modern sites as a subset, the limits to modern site inclusion (mostly iconic by star architects), and endangered lists overall effectiveness.

As part of the Chicago Modern: More than Mies events, join Docomomo US President and author of "Preserving Modern Architecture", Theodore Prudon, in Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, April 19th for an evening entitled Why Modernism Matters: Docomomo and Preserving Modern Architecture. Cocktails and book signing will accompany the lecture. Copies of Mr. Prudon’s book "Preserving Modern Architecture" will be available for sale and signing.

The event will take place at Hafele, 154 W Hubbard St. and is free and open to the public. One AIA/CES credit will be available.
For more information on the event and Chicago Modern: More than Mies, visit their website.

Chicago Modern: More than Mies is made possible through the generous support of the Save Prentice Coalition (the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Landmarks Illinois, Preservation Chicago, and docomomo_midwest) and co-sponsors Hafele, AIA Chicago, the Mies van der Rohe Society, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Holiday Club, and the Palmer House.

Landmarks Illinois has released a report outlining how Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital could be reused rather than demolished. Click here to download the report (PDF). Located at the eastern edge of the medical campus in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Prentice is considered one of Goldberg’s most innovative and significant buildings.

For fifteen years, Docomomo US has been at the forefront of the modern architecture preservation movement, and continues today as the resource for advancing education and advocacy about its importance. To maintain this leadership, we rely on the participation of our supporters, members, and advocates from across the nation.